Chapter 18 - Spirit Beast

Mental power probed into the jade slip, transferring the mission details into his mind.

The mission: Enter the Tide Sea and slay three demonic beasts in the magical power realm. The mission didn’t stress its difficulty, but the Tide Sea was more than ten thousand miles from the mountain gate. Currently, Leng Yan was unable to use sword flight, so it would take a long time to get there.

After much consideration, Leng Yan decided to seek out Shui Yunyao and borrowed a spirit beast, the “Colorful Tiger,” as his mount.

Arriving at the foot of the mountain, he took out the beast token, dropped his essence blood onto it, and immediately felt a mental connection with the spirit beast.

With a wave of his hand over the token, colorful lights flashed, and a tiger as large as a water buffalo appeared on the mountain path. This fierce tiger was covered in pristine white fur, adorned with a multicolored aura, a helmet on its forehead adding to its majestic appearance, and a golden saddle on its back for riding.

Leng Yan leaped onto the tiger’s back, a bit thrilled as it was his first time riding atop a tiger, and this one was particularly striking.

“Little Tiger! Let’s go!” Leng Yan shouted.

“Who’s Little Tiger?” A voice suddenly rang inside his head.

“Who? Who are you? Who’s speaking to me?” Leng Yan looked around as he spoke.

“Me! The one you’re riding. It’s me,” the voice came again.

Leng Yan looked down at the spirit beast beneath him, realizing that through the blood recognition with the beast token, he could communicate mentally with the spirit tiger.

“Little Tiger, so it’s you! Let’s go!” Leng Yan gripped the saddle, ready to dash off, he said.

“Am I Little Tiger? I don’t like that name!”

“If you like the name, these ten primordial spirit elixirs are yours, and I’ll find you a tigress once we’re down the mountain,” Leng Yan said, waving the elixirs in front of the spirit tiger with a smile.

“Fine! I like the name, but I want two tigresses!” Little Tiger bargained.

Leng Yan was speechless, amused that the spirit tiger was haggling for two mates. He tossed a primordial spirit elixir into the tiger’s mouth. “Little Tiger, let’s go!”

“What does ‘let’s go’ mean?”

“It means we start the journey!” Leng Yan hadn’t expected the spirit tiger to be so slow on the uptake.

“Got it!” Little Tiger roared, and suddenly a strong wind blew, and the spirit tiger sped off with Leng Yan.

Little Tiger runs steadily, so much so that one barely feels any jolts.

After an hour of galloping, Leng Yan had already left the mountain gate a hundred miles behind. At this moment, Little Tiger was carrying Leng Yan, leaping and running through the forest.

“Little Tiger, can you run in a straight line?” Leng Yan, disoriented by Little Tiger’s erratic movements, complained.

“You promised to find me a tigress, but you haven’t yet! So, I’m going to find one myself!” Little Tiger retorted.

Leng Yan hadn’t expected the spirit tiger to remember so well. Just as he was about to speak, suddenly! Leng Yan sensed a strong surge of Water Qi heading towards him, an attack spell from the water element.

“Little Tiger! Danger! Dodge!” Leng Yan pulled on the saddle, his face grim as he shouted.

As a spirit beast, Little Tiger had a strong sense of danger. He abruptly stopped and leapt to the side.

Just as Little Tiger carried Leng Yan out of the way, the ground where they had been froze over, icicles radiating cold light sprouting from it.

“Mommy! That scared me to death! Forget the tigress, let’s run!” Little Tiger yelled in panic, fleeing frantically, his regal aura as the king of beasts nowhere to be seen.

This wasn’t entirely Little Tiger’s fault. Spirit beasts like him were kept in captivity, used merely for transportation, and had lost their wild instincts. It was normal for them to be timid.

Leng Yan spread his mental power over an area of a mile, searching for the person who had attacked him.

“Who blocks my path? Why attack me?” His mental power relayed back that up ahead, a man in a white robe stood with his hands behind his back, radiating the aura of the True Essence Realm.

The man was a cultivator of the True Essence Realm, already capable of sword flight. With the spirit tiger’s speed, there was no way they could outrun him.

“Little Tiger, stop! Return to the beast token, and I’ll call you out when it’s safe.”

“Master is wise, master is formidable, I’m out of here, master!” Little Tiger halted, and before Leng Yan could dismount, Little Tiger transformed into a streak of light and ran back into the beast token, nearly causing Leng Yan to fall off.

Putting away the beast token, Leng Yan walked towards the man in the white robe, who wore a murderous look. The man spoke, “Are you Leng Yan?”

“I am. Who are you?” Leng Yan responded emotionlessly. Having been attacked by this man, Leng Yan had already marked him for death.

“My name is Li Kai! I am Chen Hai’s adoptive younger brother, and you should know why I’m seeking you out!”

“Are you here to rescue Chen Hai? But how do you know Chen Hai is with me! Could it be that you have a sound transmission conch?” When leaving the mountain gate, Leng Yan took Chen Hai from Shui Yunyao, and no one else knew. The only explanation is that Chen Hai had sent out a message.

“You are smart! Release my adoptive elder brother, and I might spare your life for Shui Yunyao’s sake,” Li Kai said sternly.

Leng Yan patted his sleeves, looked up at the sky, and chuckled coldly: “You also said I am smart; why would I foolishly believe your words? Once I release Chen Hai, it would be easy for you two to kill me. But now! It won’t be so simple for you alone to kill me!”

“Ha ha!”

“Am I hearing things wrong? You, who haven’t even reached the magical power realm, think it would be difficult for me to kill you? Let me tell you, killing you is like squashing an ant!” Li Kai was unaware that Leng Yan had already entered the magical power realm, and he did not know that Leng Yan practiced the Blackwater Emperor Technique.

“Is that so? Then why waste words here! Kill me, and you can rescue Chen Hai,” Leng Yan sneered.

“Don’t think just because you have Shui Yunyao, this woman protecting you, that you can be so arrogant,” Li Kai shouted angrily at Leng Yan.

“So, you are afraid of Yunyao! Heh, you’re foolish! We are already miles away from the mountain gate, and even if Yunyao is a golden core cultivator, she wouldn’t know what happens here. If you kill me, who would know?” Leng Yan said with a dismissive and contemptuous look.

“What do you mean exactly?” Li Kai grew increasingly confused as, typically, when faced with a stronger enemy or death, one tries to make the enemy fearful and hesitant to strike, but Leng Yan seemed as if he was eager for Li Kai to make a move.

“What can I mean? Whether you strike or not, if you don’t, I need to proceed with my mission, don’t block my way, wasting my time,” Leng Yan said impatiently, waving his hand.

“Fine, let’s see what you rely on!”

“Mystic Ice Dragon Qi! Kill!”

Finally provoked by Leng Yan, Li Kai swung his hand, casting a water-element attack spell.

The sky was clear with the sun shining brightly, yet suddenly, within the mountain forest, snowflakes began to dance, and the temperature dropped sharply. In an instant, countless Water Qi transformed into a ten-zhang¹-long ice dragon, soaring and charging towards Leng Yan. Wherever the ice dragon passed, flowers and grass were immediately turned into ice sculptures.

Facing this formidable attack, Leng Yan showed no fear.

Smiling as the ice dragon rapidly approached, Leng Yan remained unmoved, as if these were not enough to disturb his composure. Li Kai, seeing that Leng Yan neither dodged nor counterattacked, thought Leng Yan had been scared stiff.

In an instant, as the ice dragon neared Leng Yan, he declared, “Convergence of Ten Thousand Waters!”

“A faint voice echoed through the woods, and it was this phrase that turned this moment into one Li Kai would never forget.”

His ice dragon shattered with a loud crash in front of this phrase, turning into a bundle of Water Qi, then silently entering Leng Yan’s body, rendering his own attack into nothingness!

“How can this be, impossible! You haven’t stepped into the magical power realm; how could you break through a true essence realm magical technique attack!” Li Kai exclaimed in shock, as if all this was not real but a dream.

“How do you know I haven’t stepped into the magical power realm! What goes around comes around, you hit me with your mystic ice dragon qi, and I return the favor with my water dragon technique!”

“Water dragon technique!”

Leng Yan bellowed, and immediately, a pale blue water dragon appeared in the sky. Its body, over ten zhang long, swayed violently, stirring up a fierce wind as it charged towards Li Kai.

“Magical technique! How can this be! Ice Shield! Block it for me!” At this moment, Li Kai’s astonishment was beyond measure. First, his own attack was effortlessly neutralized, and now Leng Yan was actually conjuring a magical technique. It was all too unbelievable, especially since Leng Yan had been humiliated by Chen Hai not long ago, and now he was able to put himself at an advantage, showing incredible progress.

In his panic, he set up an Ice Shield, hoping to block Leng Yan’s water dragon technique.

Footnote:

1. Zhang(丈):A Chinese traditional unit of length, approximately equal to 3.33 meters or about 10.9 feet.